A method is known in the prior art of manufacturing an underpants-type absorbent article, which is provided with an outer body, which is provided with a mutually separate front piece, back piece and connecting sheet, and wherein the front piece and the back piece are mutually joined at side areas and mutually connected by the connecting sheet extending in the front-to-rear direction at the crotch area, and an inner body containing an absorptive body and which is overlapped and anchored to the connecting sheet on the inside of the outer body, including: a transport step for transporting a continuous body of the front piece in the form of a front piece web and a continuous body of the back piece in the form of a back piece web in a machine direction while maintaining a spacing area in a cross-machine direction perpendicular to the machine direction, an outer body web forming step for forming a continuous body of the outer body in the form of an outer body web by attaching the connecting sheet to the front piece web and the back piece web at intervals in the machine direction so as to straddle the spacing area, an attachment step for attaching the inner body to the outer body web, and an edge forming step for cutting the outer body web to form edges that define leg holes (see PLT 1). Namely, in this manufacturing method, a portion of the inner body is cut and removed after having attached the inner body to the outer body web.
On the other hand, a method is known in the prior art of manufacturing an absorbent article that is formed from an outer body that integrates a front piece and back piece into a single unit, including: a transport step for transporting a continuous body of the outer body in the form of an outer body web, an edge forming step for cutting the outer body web to form edges that define leg holes, and an attachment step for attaching the inner body to the outer body web (see PLT 2).